Archery and Combat Archery

Archery and Combat Archery :

Combat Archery is probably one of the most widely used forms of Archery next to hunting for the Archer. It has proven itself time and time again. To show it’s face in times when it had to be used. It has saved civilizations and brought devastation upon the loser, Victory for the predecessor. As we know of combat Archery today, It is of a competition style more than what it is to kill another human. But when we look at ancient combat archery this is usually where we look at it from.

By todays standards, The below example would be more of what modern combat Archery has become.:

Combat archery involves the use of light draw weight (thirty pound maximum or fifty pounds with special oversize arrows) bows and specially constructed arrows. Special protection is worn to help prevent injuries. It consists of several types of combat, from individual duels between lights to full scale field or woods battles involving both heavies and lights. All participants are required to be familiar with and follow the Rules of the List and SCA and West kingdom heavy and light combat rules.

Combat archery first began in the SCA in the Kingdom of the West at the Island War in 1967. The arrows were eighteen inch long green stained bamboo garden stakes. There was no fletching and the blunt heads were made of one inch thick foam rubber secured with white first-aid tape and were about one to one and a half inches wide. There was no maximum weight limit for the bows, because the short arrows kept the draw and power down. The archers were not required to wear any face protection.

In missile combat, as in heavy, hits are counted on a honor system. The fighter being hit decides how to count the blow. The main difference is that a hit to a heavy fighter from the impact weapon of a heavy fighter must strike with sufficient force to count. While a hit from an arrow does not require a minimum impact to count. It counts no matter how light the impact as long as it is not a glancing hit. This is because bows strong enough and arrows hard enough to be felt in Armour or padding at sixty yards or more, would be highly unsafe at our minimum range of five yards.

Arrow hits to the head or torso count as kills. Hits to the arms or legs cause only the loss of that limb. Hits to the hand or below the knee are not counted. In a mixed battle it is safer to have dead lights leave the field, rather than remain upon it and be tread upon by live heavies.